by Ally Nelson
“Now, can you please relax so we can continue with the exam?” he told her in his deep voice and she found herself relaxing immediately. Surely, she could get pass through this without making a total and complete imbecile out of herself. She bit back her lip and opened her legs so the doctor could carry on with the exam.
She heard a snap of the doctor’s gloves as he disappeared from her sight. Then she felt a cold spatula on her downwards. She gulped back and tried not to wiggle too much at the weirdness of the whole exchange but she also felt her breathing sped up. In her entire high school career, she had not had a boy down there but then, there he was, a man much older than her.
She reminded herself sharply that this is only an exam and she should not get so worked up about it. Finally, the doctor emerged back up.
“Very good, Blair,” he told her, holding the small spatula still in his hands and transferring the contents of it onto a small glass slide, “You did well,” he appreciated her as he put the slide away.
Blair slowly got up from her place on the stretcher, “Uh – well, that wasn’t so bad,” she said quietly, “Is it all okay down there?” she asked.
The doctor laughed, “Well, by the looks of it, yes, all seems to be fine but I cannot really say until I’ve sent your cells back to the lab and we get back the results.”
“How long will that be?”
“Not too long,” he reassured her, “I should say, a week. I’ll have the nurse make you an appointment for next week, yes?”
Blair nodded and hopped off her place of sitting, taking her cue to leave. But as she exited the door, she noticed the doctor was following her suit.
“I, oh- sorry,” she said as she bumped into him while crossing the doorway.
“It seems we are both in a rush to get out of here,” he said, sounding amused.
She noticed the rain had started pouring outside now and there was no way she could walk to the bus stop without catching an illness, she frowned.
Dr. Williams noticed this. “It’s raining quite heavily outside, I see,” he told her and she nodded, her frown deepening.
“Well,” she started, “it’s going to be a lo-ong walk.”
“I am actually on my way out right now, I can give you a ride if you please?” he offered and Blair looked at him as though he had just proposed world peace to her.
“Why, I do not want to be of an inconvenience,” she shuffled, but then leaned forward a little, waiting for his reply.
He just chucked, as per usual. Blair was beginning to realize he was a very perky doctor.
“It’s fine. Come, I’ll drop you off,” he told her and she followed him to his car. It was a 2015 Prius in matte black. They both quickly jumped in to avoid getting too drenched from the rain.
“Jesus Christ,” Dr. William’s cursed lightly under his breath, “It really is pouring, isn’t it?”
Blair nodded, shutting the door beside her. She eased herself onto the passenger seat.
The doctor had taken off his egg shell white coat now and rolled up the sleeves of his buttoned grey dress shirt. Blair noticed his skin was marked with black ink, indicating a tattoo she could not properly see due to it being shielded by the cloth of his sleeve.
“Oh wow,” she pointed it out once he had begun to drive, “I did not know doctors were allowed to have tattoos,” she stated, her gaze on the black of the ink peeking through.
He chuckled in response. “It is definitely not recommended,” he said to her, eyes fixed on the road.
“Then how come you have one?” she asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
“You know, when you’re good at what you do, they tend to make a few exceptions,” he told her.
“Oh – why aren’t you modest now,” she laughed, surprised at just how easily conversation was flowing between the two of them right now.
“I am many things but modesty is not one of my best virtues, I should say,” he told her, still laughing.
“Can I see it?” she asked, suddenly; her front teeth sinking again into the plush of her lips.
“Sure, go ahead,” he told her and she slowly moved her fingers to the hem of his rolled up sleeve, pushing it up even further.
It revealed the head of a wolf on his lower forearm with some words in Latin inscribed below it. Blair found her admiring the art work and resisted the urge to run her fingers over it. “That’s beautiful,” she breathed, “what does it mean?” she said, tearing her eyes away to look up at him.
“It’s a famous Latin saying,” he admitted, “it means, as long as there is life, hope lives on.”
“That’s quite deep Dr. Williams,” she commented.
“Please – don’t call me Dr. Williams. I do not wish to be referred that outside of the clinic. I often encourage my patients to refer to me more like a friend. Call me Daniel,” he said before adding, “and yes, well it is a phrase whose meaning I hold quite dear to me.”
“I’ve always wanted to go get a tattoo,” she told him, shyly, “but my mother would freak out for sure, Daniel.” She added the last word just to see how it would feel like if she said out his first name out loud. Admittedly, it felt nice.
“Ah, teenage,” he said wistfully, “I got my first one before I turned 18,” he told her, chuckling as he remembered the memory.
“You know,” she started, crossing her legs now, “you are quite edgy for someone who is supposed to be old and have a profession as boring as medicine,” she suddenly felt as though perhaps she had crossed some line and should not have said what she did but to her relief, Daniel did not find the remark to be of any offense and instead it played to his amusement. It looked like as though he got this a lot.
“Age is only but a number. I believe a person is young as long as he remains young at heart,” he said, “and as for medicine being boring, I should not think so. It is a passion of mine that I have pursued most ardently and do not wish to relinquish due to any societal stereotypes of it being not interesting enough.”
She looked down at her feet, “I do not even know what I want to be. Wish I had a passion like that,” she admitted, almost sadly.
“Hey there,” suddenly his voice grew considerably softer as though he related to her on some level, “You seem like a smart young woman, I am certain you will figure it out. Besides, did you not mention before you had gotten some acceptances from college?” he inquired.
Blair nodded, a lump had suddenly risen up in her throat, “I did. I’m happy yes but- you know how you seem so passionate about medicine, yeah well, I don’t think I feel that way about anything,” she said.
“At your age, that is perfectly fine,” he told her, “Just whatever you do, agree not to settle on anybody else’s terms but your own,” he advised wisely.
Blair nodded, suddenly feeling a rush of relief. Perhaps this is what she has needed to hear all along and if someone as successful as him was telling me this, it must mean it is good advice indeed. She felt glad of her decision to let him drop her off.
“Thanks Dr – I mean, Daniel. I think I really needed to hear that.”
He chuckled again, “Oh no problem. Consider me a friend, more so your doctor,” he said, cheerfully, “Now where am I drop you off?”
“My friend, she said there was a party and I should come – there, perhaps?” she told him and then explained to him the directions. A few moments later, they were parked in front of the house where the party was held. Faint music could be heard blaring through the walls.
“This is your destination,” he said to her as they pulled into the front.
“Thank you Daniel. For not making me walk out here all the way in the rain,” she said, sincerely.
“Anytime,” he replied, chuckling. “happy to be of service.”
They said their goodbyes and as she watched him pull out of the gray paved road, she could not help but think how nice of time she had with him in a few minutes than she had ever had on a date with one of her own peers. Shaking her head, she
made her way into the house to enter the party.
Chapter 3
“Blair, over here!” it was the sound of Janet, her best friend, over the melody of the loud music that was playing through the entire room. The party had already well begun when Blair had made an appearance – she could tell that by the throng of drunken teenagers that surrounded her, laughing loudly and dancing.
Blair pushed through the crowds of people to be once again reunited with her best friend. Janet wrapped her in a hug upon encounter.
“I’m so glad you came, B!” she said, keeping her mouth close to the brunette’s ear so she could hear her over the obscenely loud music, “I was so sure you were going to ditch again.”
Blair laughed, “Well, I’m here now, aren’t I?”
Janet giggled in reciprocation and Blair could tell she was already a bit tipsy judging from the slur to her speech and the red cup firmly grasped between her fingers.
“How was your doctors thing?” she asked her, swinging slightly sideways to steady herself against the support of a wall.
Blair paused for a moment, looking for words to articulate her thoughts. She felt a weird rush of butterflies thinking about the incident but even Blair knew feeling that way was foolish and naïve. So, instead, she just swallowed back and replied, “It went fine – everything’s good.”
Janet let out a drawn out yawn as though she was already bored with the conversation topic, “So listen,” she changed the topic, her eyes glimmering with that same tint she always gets when she is excited about something, “James is here. He kept asking for you, actually – he’s in the back if you want to see him.” Janet was grinning wildly by the time she had ended her sentence.
Blair looked back at her with dubious contemplation – she knew her best friend was up to something and that something probably involved the unification of her and James. Still, she thought if she’d come all the way here to the party, might as well do as told.
A few moments later, she stood at the door of the patio, leading to the backyard. And like Janet had said, James stood there with a bottle of beer in his hands.
“Hey,” she cleared her throat to make her presence known. James turned around and looked happy to see her.
“Blair,” he said, droning out the last syllable, “Nice to see you here.”
Blair nodded and walked over to him, “So what you doing out here?” she said, awkwardly trying to make conversation.
James looked back at, taking a swig out of his beer, “You know,” he hinted, flashing her a wide smile, “just waiting for you,” he said with a wink.
“Oh god, stop,” Blair replied, rolling her eyes slightly.
“I’m serious,” he said and then checked her out, giving her a once over with his eyes, “you look great – could have put more effort on the outfit though,” he said, leaning in closer and hovering his face over hers.
“Your breath reeks of beer,” she said, pushing him away.
“Hey man, what’s your deal Carter?” James shot back as he stumbled backwards, “why do you have to be so uptight all the time?”
Blair pressed her lips together in a tight line, “I am not uptight,” she said, her tone had taken an edge of defensiveness.
“Yeah, sure,” he scoffed, taking another swig of beer, “you’re like the most prissy too-good-for-everyone chick in our batch. That’s really rich coming from you,” he let out a hiccup-y laugh towards the end.
“Shut up, James,” Blair replied, feeling annoyed at both him and herself for agreeing to come out and see him in the first place.
“See, this is why you don’t have a boyfriend,” James continued, “and barely any other friends besides Janet. Geez, I wonder how she puts up with you man. You should be happy I even give you the time of day, instead of-“
He was cut off abruptly by Blair turning to her heel to leave but he quickly grabbed her by the hand.
“Hey, no, okay stop,” he said, sounding apologetic now, “I did not mean it like that okay?” he said, sounding sincere.
“Right,” she replied back, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “Sure you didn’t.”
He flashed her his cheeky grin once again, “So what do you say, huh?” he asked, his face leaning in closer again, “how about we ditch this lame party and get out of here?” he proposed, suggestively wiggling his eyebrows at him.
“Oh god, you are disgusting!” she exclaimed at once, freeing her arm away from him and stomping away to go back inside the house. Behind her, she could hear the loud roar of his laughter.
Blair was sufficiently annoyed by this point and wanted nothing more to get back home and forget what happened. The loud music was hurting her head and triggering her migraine. Plus, she did not want to see the face of James again – which she inevitably would if she stayed at the party one moment longer.
“Janet!” she called out, exasperatedly as she finally spotted her best friend – she was surrounded by a bunch of people taking part in a game of beer pong. “Janet!” she said louder when her first one returned un-responded.
“Blair?” she replied as she spotted her, “oh wait guys – I’ll be right back.”
And with that, Janet followed Blair out of the house. Once outside, Blair crossed her arms in front of her and shot her best friend an annoyed look.
“What’s eating you?” Janet asked, raising an eyebrow at her impatient antics.
“Can we leave now?” Blair said bluntly, “Please?” she added once for good measure.
“Why – the party is only started-“she stopped abruptly as she noticed the expression on her best friend’s face; she was practically shooting daggers at her, “Wait, did something happen?” she said, finally catching on.
Blair sighed, “Can we go now? I’ll tell you on the way back home.”
“Okay, let me just get my bag from inside, Bee.”
The rain had stopped its drastic assault and was not only falling in tiny harmless platters on the windscreen of the car as they sped through the highway on their way back home.
“You want to stop and get some burgers on the way?” Janet asked in a feeble attempt to lighten up the atmosphere. Of course, food was the answer to everything for her.
Blair shook her head and reached out her hand to turn up the volume of the car radio, so all noises could be droned out in the background. But Janet reached out and turned it back down.
“Hey – come on now,” she scolded lightly, “If you’re going to be all grumpy on the way back, can you at least tell me what’s wrong?” Janet demanded.
Blair heaved a sigh, “You know – it’s nothing new. Just James - he was being obnoxious,” Blair admitted, her eyes gazing out the window to avoid any possible eye contact.
Janet tightened her grip on the steering wheel enough to cause her knuckles to whiten, “What did he do?” she said, through gritted teeth.
“You know how he is.”
“Tell me, Bee.” Janet insisted, “You know I’m not letting you out of this car until I get it out of you, right?” she threatened lightly but Blair knew she only meant it out of genuine concern.
“It’s stupid - and I know I shouldn’t be affected by it but,” Blair started and then stopped feeling a loss of words. James’ words had stung more than she had liked to admit and she was only realizing that when having to repeat them, “You know? Forget it. He’s a stupid boy and I shouldn’t give it too much attention.”
“Blair,” Janet warned, her voice ringing with a resounding finality. “Tell me.” It sounded more like an order than a request.
“He called he stuck up and a prude,” Blair admitted finally, frustrated at her own reaction to the words.
“Oh - he what? He’s a moron. Don’t let him get to you okay?” Janet sounded considerably angry at this, “I’m sorry I made you go to him – I did not know he would be this way towards you.”
“It’s not your fault,” Blair replied, making a feeble attempt to smile.
“No really,” she said, “Ug
h I am going to give that boy a piece of my mind when I see him next.”
“I mean – maybe he is right,” Blair said quietly.
“Oh no – not this! That bastard! He got to you,” Janet said, fuming, “I’m going to give him more than just my piece of my mind when I see him next.”
“He was right – I don’t have a boyfriend and I’m eighteen. Look at you, you have a new guy falling over you every week,” Blair said, turning her head away again to gaze out the window.
“Yes – but that is only because you are much smarter than I am,” Janet replied, “besides, you said it yourself, you never got along with these immature high school boys anyway and judging by your interaction with James today, I am really starting to see why,” she said, shaking her head in disapproval towards the end.
Blair nodded and suddenly her mind wheeled back to Daniel – how they had such a good time today and how they had connected so well, much better than she could ever with James. Still, she sighed and did not dare admit it out loud.
What was she supposed to admit? She felt a strange impending attraction towards her doctor? In a more than platonic sense? Just thinking of the words made her feel silly, let alone realize their existence in words.
“Listen, I know the perfect thing to cheer you up,” Janet said, suddenly perking up, “We’re going to go on a midnight donut run – my treat. It’ll be great, sugar solves everything.”
Blair could not help but chuckle at her best friend’s antics despite her own gloomy mood and agreed.
Chapter 4
Blair sat at the edge of her bed, tapping her foot repeatedly on the cold hardwood floor of her room. She could not dispel the gnawing feeling of anxiousness in the pit of her stomach and as much as she tried to deny it, much of it had to do with James’ words to her yesterday.
It was true that she had led most of her life very sheltered and unexposed to the crazy experiences teenagers usually had around this age. Was it true? Was she really uptight and that was the reason why she was missing out? She had already chalked it down to the fact that she felt mentally superior to her peers and thus made better decisions than them. But she was beginning to realize for the first time, that maybe that might have been a mistake.
